System1 reveals Australia’s top 10 favourite ads

UK-based creative effectiveness platform System1 has released its first annual ranking of Australia’s favourite ads, with creative work from Tourism Australia and Qantas, Australian Lamb (Droga5 ANZ) and AAMI (Leo Australia) leading the way.

The 2025 ranking is based on scores from System1’s Test Your Ad platform, which maps emotional responses to an advert to predict its commercial impact. Creatives which evoke strong positive feelings in audiences are more likely to drive long-term brand building and sales. Adverts are scored on a 1.0-Star to 5.9-Star scale and just 1% of creatives earn the coveted 5-Stars or higher.

The average Star Rating for Australian TV adverts is 2.4, predicting modest long-term brand building potential, and accounts for just under half of all global advertising.

A common thread running through the top ten ads is their focus on humour and cultural assets. The creatives combine witty dialogue, famous faces, and clever references to national culture to produce adverts that feel inherently Australian and instil audiences with a sense of belonging. Tennis player Nick Kyrgios, race car drivers Greg Murphy and Marcus Ambrose, and Olympic breakdancer Rachael Gunn all make an appearance in the top ten list.

Says Jon Evans, Chief Consumer Officer at System1 and host of the Uncensored CMO podcast: “If there’s one thing Aussies absolutely nail in advertising, it’s humour. It’s the single most effective ingredient for making ads memorable, attention-grabbing and genuinely engaging, and Australians use it unapologetically.

“The top ten ads we tested in 2025 are packed with wit, exaggeration, cultural tropes and parody, full of character and unmistakably Aussie. Insurance, car parts and auto might be some of the most “neutral” categories on System1’s Test Your Ad Competitive Edge platform, but these campaigns are anything but dull; they’re quirky, human and cut through their categories with ease.”

System1’s ranking of Australia’s top ten ads of 2025

The ads are ranked by Star Rating (brand-building potential), with Spike Rating (short-term sales potential) the tiebreaker for ads with the same Star Rating. 

1. Qantas | “Come and Say G’Day with Qantas” – 4.3 Stars

2. Australian Lamb | “The Summer Lamb” via Droga5 ANZ – 3.9 Stars

3. AAMI | “The AAMI Driving Test” via Leo Australia – 3.8 Stars

4. Repco | “Bringin’ the Bathurst” via Thinkerbell – 3.7 Stars

5. Kia | “Landing Mid-2025” via Innocean Australia – 3.7 Stars

6. GWM | “GWM Cannon” via Thinkerbell – 3.7 Stars

7. Australian Pork | “Get Some Pork on Your Fork” via Dig Agency – 3.4 Stars

8. Mitsubishi | “Long Way to the Top” via Richards Rose – 3.3 Stars

9. Myer | “Christmas at Myer 2025” via Howatson+Company – 3.2 Stars

10. Uber Eats | “Democracy Sausage Delivered” via Special – 3.2 Stars

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